Navigation

News Updates

Garland wins Google's Get Your Busines Online City Challenge

Garland was one of three cities recognized during the U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting in Dallas this week as winners of Google’s Get Your Business Online City Challenge. Garland Mayor Douglas Athas takes home the honor for leading a number of initiatives to help Garland’s small businesses get online. Mayor Rizzo from Revere, Massachusetts, and Mayor Fischer from Louisville, Kentucky also were honored.

More than 150 Mayors and their cities participated in the City Challenge, which Google launched with the U.S. Conference of Mayors in June 2013. Cities hosted events, conducted outreach, and formed partnerships to encourage local businesses to get online. The winning cities were celebrated for their creative, far reaching, and scalable efforts. One of Garland’s initiatives was a Public Service Announcement with local business owners encouraging others to get online.

As part of their prize package, winning cities will be given a technology prize package valued at $50,000 that includes phones, tablets, and laptops. In addition, during the next few months, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Google will help host an awards ceremony in each of the cities.

“Over the next three years, businesses that make use of the web expect to grow 40% faster than those that don’t. Yet, 55% of America’s businesses don’t have a website.” said Soo Young Kim, Head of Google’s Get Your Business Online Program. “We are thrilled to see the great strides cities made in helping to get their local businesses online where there customers are.”

“We are honored and excited to win this recognition from both Google and the U.S. Conference of Mayors and for the opportunity to continue our partnership with both organizations.” said Mayor Douglas Athas. "The Mayor’s Office worked with the Garland Chamber of Commerce, the Garland Downtown Business Association and other local organizations to encourage businesses to get online. As part of winning this recognition we will begin working with Google on the next phase of the project Let’s Put Garland On the Map. This next phase will begin later this summer and will take a more in-depth look at what businesses are currently online and how we can better partner with those that are not online."

About The United States Conference of Mayors The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are nearly 1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/usmayors, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/usmayors.